Join Us August 1st–4th, 2013

All 4 days just $180 USD!

at the Rio Hotel in Las Vegas!

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Recent News

DEF CON 21 Materials RSS Feed, Updated CD, and Torrents!

Posted 10.8.13

For all of you fine folks out there, we have lovingly compiled the speaker's slide decks and extras from the con CD into the DEF CON 21 Materials RSS feed for your enjoyment! Not only that, but it includes all the updates submitted by the speakers since the con, so you'll have all the latest research! So check it out and grab the stuff you are interested in!

Alternatively, if you just gotta have it all sitting on a hard drive awaiting your whim, We have also posted a torrent and direct download link to the Updated Conference CD!

We've also updated a couple of the large collection torrents, one for the DEF CON CD/DVD collection from all the shows to reflect the addition of DEF CON 21, and another for the Hacker Related Documentaries with the addition of DEF CON: The Documentary.

DEF CON 21 Early Release Video on YouTube!

Posted 9.9.13

We've posted a few tasty morsels of early release video for you on the DEF CON YouTube Channel! You can absorb Zoz's talk on Hacking Driverless Vehicles, Mudge's anecdotes of being a hacker inside the government, and Melissa Elliot's research on unintentional radio emissions! Enjoy!

DEF CON 21 Contest Results!

Posted 9.3.13

Were you wondering how everyone placed at this year's DEF CON Contests? Wander on over to the DEF CON 21 Contest Results Page for all that have reported back so far!

DEF CON 21 Archive Page!

Posted 8.27.13

Now scribed in the book of ages known as the interwebs, is the DEF CON 21 Archive. You'll find links to press, the program, the receipt, and all of the latest updated speaker materials and extras from DEF CON 21. Keep watch on this archive, data from this year's con is still rolling in and it will be updated, as we receive it! Enjoy!

Press page updated for DEF CON 21!

Posted 8.18.13

Extra! Extra! Read all about it! The DEF CON Press page has been updated with over 200 new articles on DEF CON 21! Sometimes they get it right, and sometimes they get it wrong, but it's all there for your discriminating perusal! Enjoy.

CTF Page Updated for DEF CON 21

Posted 8.14.13

Check out the DEF CON CTF Archive for write-ups and links to the LegitBS Scorebot SQL Dump from this year's Capture the Flag!

Congrats To DEF CON 21 CTF Winners!

Posted 8.8.13

A hearty congratulations to Plaid Parliament of Pwning for taking this year's CTF crown! Thank you to Legitimate Business Syndicate for running a great game! Head on over to legitbs.net for the scoreboard of this year's Capture the Flag and a wrap up of the event.

DEF CON 21 - The Official Soundtrack!

Posted 8.7.13

Thanks to the huge success of DEF CON's 20th anniversary compilation, we've brought it back again and stepped up our game. This year, we present you with "DEF CON 21: The Official Soundtrack:" 20 tracks of pure nerd fuel for hacking. The compilation features many of the talented acts in attendance at the conference, like BT (seriously!), Faderhead (for real!), and far beyond that with generous submissions from the likes of PANTyRAiD and Gramatik.

As if that wasn't enough, this release is completely free/donation-based, with 100% of the generated revenue going straight to the Electronic Frontier Foundation (EFF / http://eff.org), a 501(c)3 not-for-profit dedicated to protecting our Internet freedoms and privacy.

Get on over to the Gravitas Recordings (the awesome label donating their time, energy, PR skills, and distribution networks to the cause) Bandcamp release page to grab this sonic goodness, check the full track-list, and ***DONATE***!

Cheers to an awesome DEF CON 21!

Posted 8.7.13

Well folks, that's another DEF CON on the books, and it was a great one! We're starting to make it home, and gather contest results, press, content, photos, and everything else from a fantastic DEF CON 21, so keep an eye on this space, our Twitter, and Facebook in the coming days and weeks as it is scribed into the archives!

Big thanks to all of the attendees, You give us the reason to do this every year, and we're ecstatic that you travel to the middle of the desert in the dead of summer to enjoy our gathering! To all of the goons, your tireless efforts and dedication shine year after year as we move through each and every con, thank you all. A big thank you all of those who contribute their time, enthusiasm, knowledge, and talent to DEF CON through speaking, performing, and running contests, events, villages, and parties.

Stay tuned, and we hope to see you all at DEF CON 22!

Birds of a Feather tonight at DEF CON 21!

Posted 8.3.13

Birds of a Feather?! More like Nerds of a Feather! … or something. This year we're going to keep the content going into the night with Birds of a Feather/Bars of a Feather sessions. As part of the Defcon 21 Pub Crawl, grab yourself a beer and get your geek on!

While pouring through over 500 CFP submissions this year we noticed that some presentations seemed to be less attractive as a lecture, and would be better suited as an open discussion, so that's what we're doing. We'll provide the space, a block of time, and a bar in the hallway, what happens after that is up to you. Each BoF session *snicker* will cover a topic near and dear to someone's heart, and this will be your opportunity to lift them up, smack them down, or start the discussion on working together on something great. Topics could include Car Hacking, Hacker Culture, Locksport, DIY Drones, Offensive Security, Conspiracy Theories, and more.

We'll seed the sessions with topics that didn't require just one person with a microphone, but a group format, and larger audience participation. However, we're also going to leave multiple sessions open for "On Site BoF Registration". This will give folks a chance to get a conversation going about something they saw at DC21 that they just have to talk about, or something topical that came up after the CFP already closed. So if you've got something you want to discuss come see us at the Info Booth, Saturday, from 6PM-8PM, and those selected will be added to the schedule for that evening. Sound good? Good.

So grab a drink and get involved, or sit in the back and sip away while two guys with violently opposing viewpoints act out a flame war live, either way we're going to have a good time.

8:00PM

9:00PM

10:00PM

BoF 1

Security Law

DIY Drones

Social Engineering - Skill, or Security Snake Oil?

BoF 2

Car Hacking

Wireless Penetration Testing

Locksport

BoF 3

Coordinated Disclosure / Bug Bounties

Submitting to a CFP - Right, Wrong, WTF?

The Outer Limits - Coverups and Conspiracies

BoF 4

Running a Hackerspace

Offensive Security / Network Self-Defense / Strikeback

Hacker Culture - New and Old

BoF 5

Open Slot

Open Slot

Open Slot

BoF 6

Open Slot

Open Slot

Open Slot

Media-21 Server at DEF CON 21!

Posted 8.2.13

The media server from last year is back! Upload and Download! WarEz AlerT!

If you're on the conference network, point your browser at ftp://dc21-media.defcon.org!

What you will find:
Images of this year's conference materials, music, art and pictures as well as everything we can find from years past as well as a limited reading directory and other security odds and ends. Grab what you want, and please upload and share what you have related to the con. We would love to get pictures, write ups, wordlists, whatever you may have!
And for those of you in a rush we will also have physical wired LAN connections to the media server at the Info Booth where you can plug in, get a DHCP address, and start leeching directly. Play nice!

DC21 Pre-con Badge Challenge Revealed

Posted 7.29.13 by Darth Null

About a month ago, Nikita mentioned on twitter that she wanted ideas for a badge giveaway contest. Banasidhe suggested she ask G. Mark Hardy to write a crypto contest, and he recruited me to help. So together we came up with the basic outline of the puzzle, he wrote the clues, and I built the puzzle. For reasons that will shortly become apparent, though, we kept his involvement quiet.

The puzzle consisted of a word search game and two stages of cryptography. All the word search clues were contests at DEF CON (and apologies to any contests we couldn't fit in!). Once you found all the words, the real contest began. Trying to incorporate a coded message into the clues or the locations of the hidden words would be nearly impossible...but we had all kinds of letters left over. So rather than filling the grid with random letters, we filled them with cipher text.

So how is the message hidden? We didn't want this to be too hard, so the first part was just a Caesar cipher: ROT-13.

ABCDEFGHIJKLMNOPQRSTUVWXYZ
NOPQRSTUVWXYZABCDEFGHIJKLM

So every "A" turns into an "N", every "X" into a "K", etc. Applying that key to the code gives us (with spaces added for clarity):

YOU HAVE DONE VERY WELL SO FAR
NOW FOR THE PRIZE HERE IS YOUR CLUE
HE IS THE NEW HOST OF HACKER JEOPARDY
XXXXXUVIIJKEMRBPLFBZGZTYOWCSZSMQBVKNFCCKNAUCNOPUVMVROIRWJYMJPQOGKNKMBZ
KOOUOPVSVLKDTYOZYOEATSTFGEUOPMSMNSKZNSQKZTEWYHSCEATSWZXJPGWDJQRKRWURQJZXXXXX

One last trick: because we were referring to Jeopardy...the answer had to be phrased as a question. “Who is G. Mark.” Was the answer, and submitting it got you an entry into a raffle for a free T-shirt. And now you see why we didn't credit G. Mark with helping -- we were afraid it might be too much of a hint for the solution.

So, what about the rest of the message? Well, it's encrypted with a different cipher. We left it padded on each end with multiple Xs, because we hoped that maybe it'd serve as a confirmation that you'd gotten that part right. (otherwise, well, do you use the second half ROT-13d, or as it was originally presented, or what?) So now you've got a second ciphertext, but what do do with it?

The second half was encrypted using a Vigenère cipher. This is what's known as a "Polyalphabetic Substitution Cipher," which is a fancy way of saying that every successive letter is encrypted with a different key. For example, if you had a key of "KEY", then the first letter of the message would be encrypted using a Caesar shift of "K" (where A maps to K), the second with a shift of "E" and the third with a shift of "Y". Then the key repeats, so the fourth letter of the message is encrypted using K, then E, etc.

Several tools and techniques exist for attacking this kind of cipher, though they might not work as well for a short message like this one. In any event, the players already have the key for the second stage: "WHOISGMARK". Applying that to the ciphertext, using one of many online tools, provides the clue for the second stage prize:

YOU ARE SMARTER THAN THE AVERAGE BEAR
YOU SHOULD SIGN UP FOR HACKER JEOPARDY
THE CODE TO ENTER THE DRAWING TO WIN A HUMAN BADGE IS THE FOLLOWING
WINN IS OLDER THAN DIRT

(Winn: Blame G. Mark for this clue, not me!)

A couple funny points: Apparently we dropped an "E" in "SCHEMAVERSECHAMP" in the list of words to search for. It was properly spelled in the puzzle itself, though. Sorry about that, to everyone who thought that was the answer (we wouldn't make it *that* easy). Also, a hint was given on the DEF CON Facebook page to "Play by the rules." That made at least a couple people think that the second stage was encrypted with a "Playfair" (get it -- "Play Fair"?) cipher, as that's a standard G. Mark hint for Playfair. We did consider using Playfair for the second stage, but ended up with Vigenère instead, though I'm not positive why. This wasn't meant as a deliberate bit of misdirection...but it was sorta vaguely amusing to watch. Sorry.

When the game finished, we had 903 unique entries, 319 were participants who got it right and remained eligible. 355 were correct entries for stage 1 (and were eligible to win a T-Shirt), and 349 entries had solved stage 2 (earning a chance at a T-Shirt and a Human badge).

Because there were so many good entries, and because Nikita had wanted to do another badge challenge but ran out of time, she decided to double up on the winners. The incorrect answers were removed from the database and the remaining were picked using random.org generator to avoid any accusations of selective picking.

Anyway, that's the puzzle. Thanks so much to Nikita for asking us to do this, to G. Mark for letting me kind of run with it, and to everyone who played. I was thrilled to see so many first-time puzzle solvers attack the puzzle and succeed. Great job everyone!

Floorplan Posted

Posted 7.24.13

DEFCON 21 Entertainment Pages!

Posted 7.20.13

The DEF CON 21 Entertainment pages are now live! Soak in all the info on our live acts, including a schedule, and artist pages with bios and links to their work! Thanks to Great Scott for all of his hard work creating these pages for your DEF CON 21 party planning needs!

DEF CON XXI HUMAN BADGE CHALLENGE

Posted 7.14.13

Contests? You like contests? Here's a contest. Find all the other contests in the puzzle below. Once you've done that, solve the rest of the puzzle for prizes galore!

• If you enter the correct answer for the first stage you will be entered into the drawing for a free DEF CON 21 T-shirt, redeemable at DEF CON 21!

• If you enter the correct answer to the second stage you are entered in the drawing to win a DEF CON 21 T-shirt and a Human Badge! That means you can save your money for having fun in Las Vegas, AND you get to skip the badge line!

We'd like to thank @DarthNull, for his help in coming up with this Challenge. We can't wait to see you guys in Vegas! Good luck, and thanks for playing!

The Summit EFF Fundraiser

Posted 7.14.13

We heart the Electronic Frontier Foundation. Chances are, you heart them too. You know, because they exist to defend our rights in the digital world and whatnot.

If you're looking for a fun way to heart the EFF in a way that helps them keep existing, we have an event just for you.

The Summit EFF Fundraiser is in its ninth year of handing out prizes, blasting out DJ sets and assisting in the congenial drunkification of EFF supporters. It's held Thursday night, making it a fun way to ease into DEF CON. You can hobnob with similarly freedom-inclined cyberfolk, win a raffle or some door prizes, shake your pants to DJ Jackalope and others and rest easy in the knowledge that every penny generated goes straight to the EFF.

It's $40 at the door, and your entry fee comes with a raffle ticked and a one year membership to the EFF. The question really shouldn't be "are we doing this?" so much as "how HARD are we doing this?"

Clarification

Posted 7.13.13

Apparently many in the press can't parse the English language very well. Nowhere in DT's statement did he ban anyone from attending.

There is a lot of tension in the community right now and he was asking politely for feds to consider not attending this year.

If you are on your own dime pursuing your own personal interests in hacking and not assigned to be there working your federal Intel job, then don't consider yourself a Fed! We want motivated people to attend!

DEF CON The Documentary: The Preordering

Posted 7.12.13

In a world.....

If you were at DEF CON 20, you might have noticed a crew with blaze orange vests, cameras and a Segway or two roaming the grounds and asking a lot of questions. It appears their study of us has been concluded, and they are ready to share their findings.

A couple of special editions of the highly anticipated DEF CON documentary by Jason Scott and his team are available for pre-order. Sure, it's going to be released free online, but these are SPECIAL editions that look cool on your coffee table and support your beloved DEF CON. (No need to be shy. We be-love you, too.)

There's a standard edition with the movie in 720p on a USB key with a special lanyard. There's also a Deluxe package with a 1080p video & complete 400 Gb Archive from media.defcon.org on a hard drive, a DEF CON lunchbox and an art book full of pictures from the first 20 years of DEF CON. And a special lanyard.

Furthermore, you can choose to either have it shipped to you after the CON (subject to availability) or, if you're in the know, you can have it waiting for you in Las Vegas. That's right - you can pick up your copy at DC21.

DEF CON Compilation is Back!

Posted 7.11.13

Music to hack to is back at it again. Keep your ears out for the second installment of the official free/pay-what-you-want DEF CON music compilation purveyed by Gravitas Recordings (http://gravitasrecordings.com), where 100% of the revenue generated will go straight to the EFF's pockets. We'll have some AWESOME big-names **cough** BT and others , some talented regulars, and totally far out stuff.

Here's a sneak peak off of what's coming up! A tune from a project with whom attendee artist/dj Mitch Mitchem is involved:

Feds, we need some time apart.

Posted 7.10.13

For over two decades DEF CON has been an open nexus of hacker culture, a
place where seasoned pros, hackers, academics, and feds can meet, share
ideas and party on neutral territory. Our community operates in the spirit
of openness, verified trust, and mutual respect.

When it comes to sharing and socializing with feds, recent revelations have
made many in the community uncomfortable about this relationship. Therefore,
I think it would be best for everyone involved if the feds call a "time-out"
and not attend DEF CON this year.

This will give everybody time to think about how we got here, and what comes
next.

DEF CON Tamper Evident Contest!

Posted 7.7.13

"When you can walk the rice paper without tearing it, then your steps will not be heard"
-Master Kan,"Kung Fu"

"The contest will test your ability to perform "defeats" against a range of inexpensive commercial low to medium security products in an eight hour window ... with judging occurring at noon Saturday by three judges for a combined score. You will see a list of the exact products in the contest so you can practice in advance."
-The Dark Tangent, "Con Fu"

The Tamper Evident Contest is back, with more seals for you to stealthily compromise. This year it's teams only (2-6 players) and we've added volunteers to streamline the documentation phase. There is room for only nine teams, so if you are interested it's best not to wait to sign up. You can get a ton of information about the rules, the products to be assaulted and the steps to sign up by stopping by the Tamper Evident Contest Forum Thread. We hope we will see you there, yet be utterly unable to detect your participation.

DEF CON Featured Headliner: BT

Posted 7.6.13

If you thought DEF CON peaked last year for it's 20th, THINK AGAIN. DEF CON is exceedingly (and smugly) pleased to announce our main Friday night headliner, BT: one the most prolific and pioneering musicians out there. Fancy promotional-speak doesn't do him justice. We're just going to list off factoids from his resume and call it a day:

- He's Grammy nominated.
- He holds the Guiness world record for the largest number of edits in a song (6178, to be exact).
- He's composed music for Tiesto, Paul Van Dyk, Tori Amos, Sting, and many others.
- He's scored for films like The Fast and The Furious, Monster, Go, and many others.
- His music has appeared on movie soundtracks including Hackers, Mortal Kombat: Annhilation, Tomb Raider, Zoolander, and many others.
- Video games too: Gran Turismo 3, SSX Tricky, DDR Extreme, and many others.

This is just the beginning of the awesomeness that is the music we'll be announcing for DEF CON this year. To kick things off on Thursday night, we've decided to dive right in with smashing your face full of hard electronicy goodness: We've got *Faderhead* making the trek out to the DEF CON all the way from Germany, determined to shred your ears off. This is going to be one special US appearance that you're not going to want to miss. Pain never sounded so good.

PS: Bringing earplugs may be a good call...

Wondering If We Have More Speakers to Share With You? Wonder No More.

Posted 6.30.13

The short answer is 'Yes'. The long answer is the rest of this post. So. Many. Presentations.

You probably want to go get your reading glasses. Or black-market cyber eyes. Eye strain is a real possibility, and we care about your optic health.

DEF CON 21 Entertainment Featured Artist Posting: Round 1

Posted 6.28.13

There's more to be announced very shortly, but we thought we'd kick things off with a taster on some extraordinarily talented acts we've managed to get a hold of. These are in no particular order. There should be something for eeeeveryone here.

****************************************************************

First up: Left/Right

Chris Lund aka Left/Right has spent over 12 years working from Dallas as a dj, producer, and teacher... and even longer as a musician. His music has garnered support from Rolling Stone, DJ Mag, BT, The Crystal Method, Excision, and DJ Icey, charted in the top 10 at Beatport, Juno, TrackItDown, Hype Machine, and received airplay in scores of countries around the world.

With degrees in both music composition and audio engineering, Chris loves to create music. His exciting singles, remixes, and dj mixes feature his signature broken beat, future garage, and unique bass sound and drive his energetic performances. L/R is regularly booked coast to coast and internationally to move dancefloors- including sets at Fabric (London), Burning Man, SXSW, Meltdown festivals, and his resident FUTURE events.

Next: Bil Bless (a.k.a. Son of the Electric Ghost a.k.a. SOTEG)

I'm going to make up a bio for him. If you took Richard D. James/Aphex Twin, gave him an American accent, demanded he use more dance-floor-oriented beats, had him master for a number of well-known stateside heavies, and shoved him into some dark dank underground lair where no one could possibly ever find him or hear of him except the most dedicated of cool-hunters, you'd get out the ever so enigmatic Bil Bless a.k.a. Son of the Electric Ghost a.k.a. SOTEG. We don't know how we pulled it off, but we got him to agree to come thread some of the most technical and yet beautiful bassy glitchy music through your head. I'm going to insert a personal bias here, and say that he put on the best live show I've ever seen or heard. Ever. (Sorry everyone else).

PS: No one has apparently yet found his real tune from our DCXX compilation last year (it's supposed to be a scavenger hunt...).

Next: BlakOpz

Clandestine.
Covert.
Their shadowy presence on our roster has been confirmed only to a select few up to now – but with their first major mission alongside AESTHETIC PERFECTION and X-RX about to take place across America, the time has come for us to publicly identify BLAKOPZ as the new tactical unit in DWA's ever-more-powerful army of artists.

With collective field experience of over 20 years in the rave, industrial and related music scenes, veteran DJ/producer Mike Weir (codename "Mindbender") and producer Alex King (codename "Kill The Alex") joined forces in just 2010 to form the BLAKOPZ unit – yet have already been deployed in surgical strikes throughout America opening for the likes of FGFC820, GOD MODULE, HANZEL UND GRETYL, IMPERATIVE REACTION and AYRIA.

Next: Psymbionic

As a part of the upcoming generation of electronic music producers, Psymbionic creates aural experiences that demonstrate the possibility for multi-tempo Bass Music and culture to exist within a range of more divergent influences. Passion and innovation drives this young producer, facilitating his forthcoming and past releases on labels such as Muti Music, MalLabel, and Gravitas Recordings, just to name a few.

With this latest project, John Burcham has been moving bodies and turning heads for several years, playing with acts such as Bassnectar, STS9, Beats Antique, ill.Gates, Excision, EOTO, and Tipper. In addition to festival appearances that include Nocturnal, Wakarusa, and Sonic Bloom, Psymbionic demonstrates heavy involvement both on the stage and behind the scenes at electronic showcases such as his local SXSW in Austin, TX. Burcham's work informs his repertoire with roots in the furthest reaches of the electronic music scene, and grants him a unique perspective on each crowd through the latest developments of the industry.

In a live show context, Psymbionic confronts mixes that are limited to the scope of the build and release, avoiding an industry epidemic of drop-monotony that overpowers the flow of music. Burcham seeks to prove that there are more powerful influences in moving a crowd than simple anticipation, providing an interwoven dynamic that relies on the strength of his blend, rather than the sole force or familiarity of the apex.

Psymbionic's theory of music is a journey that doesn't visit the same place twice, building excitement for what's next not because you can anticipate it, but because you've never been there before.

Next: Au5 & Fractal

What happens when you take trance music and merge it with glitch-hop? With a proper execution, you get the upstarts Au5 + Fractal, an east-coast duo from New Jersey + Maryland. You know how everyone has that older relative who talks about having seen The Stones, or The Beatles, etc before they got massively huge? If you see them at DEF CON, you'll be the one telling your future kids/grand-kids that same old story about these guys.
Site links: https://soundcloud.com/au5 and https://soundcloud.com/officialfractal

DEF CON Review Board Revealed!

Posted 6.26.13

It's my pleasure to announce to you the DEF CON 21 Review board. There were some not listed whom wished to remain super sekret, but I would like to take the moment to thank them for their work in reviewing the five hundred plus submissions. ( It goes without saying, but I will anyway) The men and women on our review board are all highly qualified, respected members of the hacker community, and I can't thank them enough. They worked really hard to help cook up a fresh batch of awesome-sauce for you to enjoy, I hope you like our selections. We spent a lot of time debating amongst ourselves, insulting each other with image macros, and scheming to fit as many of the A++FTW CFP's into the schedule that we could. Now, the moment you've been waiting for since the first sentence...THE DEF CON 21 Review Board.

By now everyone should have gotten word on their CFP submission, if for some unknown reason you haven't heard back from us, drop us a line and we will provide you with feedback on your submission. At last, the final round of speakers have officially been accepted and here is another speakers page update for you. Set your eyeballs to gaze, it's a good long read, plenty of cool talks for DC21. Thank you all again for submitting, the review board for every minute spent reviewing, and the NSA for backing it up to hard drive for us. - Nikita

Another Round of Speaker Announcements!

Posted 6.26.13

That's right. More speaker announcements. We know it's a lot to take in. You don't have to read them all at once. Meditate. Contemplate. Marinate.

Things are Heating Up!

Posted 6.20.13

Tomorrow is the first official day of summer and, if you really think about it, DEF CON is the main reason summer exists. There are probably some other things going on, like shark attacks and whatnot. There are probably people who prioritize car trips and county fairs over hacker conventions. But you're HERE, so you are probably not one of those people. You are one of US, and you want to know what kind of action we have bubbling for you this year.

Well, the short answer is 'plenty'. Here are some of the current highlights:

The Most Significant Bit

Do you wish there was a contest that would develop your cyber-macho the way TV contests develop back-stabbing and bug-eating? We got you, OK? We got you.

The Most Significant Bit is a new contest that aims to take 16 noobs with a compubox and a dream from "zero to hero" by filling their spare cycles at DEF CON with various challenges
to their hacking and making skills. They will fight to avoid elimination! They will fight to avoid humiliation! They will fight because apparently the winner gets a REAL CROWN*!

To enter, just submit a short (1-2 minute) video to YouTube explaining why this contest needs you. Include the search term dc8bits. (Test number one - following instructions.) 16 players will be chosen to compete, and in the end one contestant's victorious buttocks will feel the incomparable comfort of the 'Throne of Leetness'. If this sounds like something you need in your life, you can find out more at dc8bits.org.*Street value of the 'Crown of Shiny Bits' is unknown at this time.

Hacker Jeopardy Sign-up

Do you and your pals know everything? Can you remember all the everything you know even under extreme alcohol conditions? Do you yearn to be immortalized in DEF CON lore?

Quite possibly the fastest route to glory for people like you is Hacker Jeopardy, the mighty and eternal drunken orgy of geek knowledge. To enter, it is advisable to check out the forum thread and get the lowdown. Host G. Mark Hardy has posted the steps you must take to begin your journey, and they are fairly specific. The first line is in ALL CAPS, PEOPLE. That's how you know it's business time. If you have a team with the goods, it's time to get enterin'.

The team behind the game is also looking for some help if you've got some skills and some time. They need some web design, some design of the hammer and nails variety and people to design additional quests. Check out the forum thread and lend a hand if you can.

Now that the summer is upon us, you'll want to keep an eye on this space. There will be much, much more to come.

New DEF CON 21 Speakers Posted!

Posted 6.12.13

Check out this new batch of speakers for your perusal! You can see them all on the Speaker page!

Live Transcription at DEF CON 21!

Posted 5.23.13

Dark Tangent has signed a contract with a company to transcribe all the speaking tracks as well as the closing ceremony in english.

What does this mean? It means for the third time in DEF CON history we will officially be supporting the hearing impaired. This time around it will be with real time transcription appearing on screen, much like what you would see if you had captioning turned on your TV.

We will get cleaned up files after the con for each speech, allowing us to post the presentation text, as well as caption the video files. See DT's original post to see how you may be able to help with this!

So with that said, we would hate to go through all the work and expense and only have two security ninjas who are hearing impaired attend. Let's promote this far and wide, and over the next couple years try and include as many as possible. The last time we did translation two years in a row we had two or three people the first, and none the second. Let's see if we can do better this time!

DEF CON 21 CFP Has Closed! CTF Quals Around the Corner!

Posted 5.21.13

Well, the DEF CON 21 Call for Papers has come to a close. As always, we got quite a deluge of new submissions right up to the bell. The review board is hard at work, selecting the finest content for your enjoyment. Submitters should know either way if they have been accepted to speak by June 17th!

Let us look forward now, to the Capture the Flag Qualification round, which is just over three weeks away. If you and your friends think you have what it takes to compete at DEF CON, it's time to sign up at 2013.legitbs.net, and good luck!

DEF CON 21 Call for Parties Updated with FAQ!

Posted 5.8.13

If you're thinking about throwing a DEF CON 21 party in our pub crawl, we've put together a list of frequently asked questions to clarify what's what in running one! You can also find the submission form if your ready to take the plunge! There's plenty of room left for your group to make their mark on DEF CON 21, so get those submissions in and make our party row a reality!

DC21 CTF Quals Registration is Now Open!

Posted 5.6.13

In case you haven't heard, as of May 1 you can now register for the DEF CON 21 Capture the Flag qualification round! Get that team together and pop on over to https://legitbs.net/ for all the details and to sign up! The Quals will happen June 15, 2013!

The DEF CON 21 Short Story Contest is Underway!

Posted 5.3.13

The DEF CON 21 Short Story Contest has officially opened! Excercise your wordsmithing talents for the chance to win free admission to DEF CON 21! All of the pertinent details can be found at https://forum.defcon.org/showthread.php?t=13334! Good Luck!

Welcome to the DEF CON 21 Website!

Posted 4.27.13

Welcome to the DEF CON 21 site! Check it out for all the latest info on this year's con. Keep checking back for news and developments for DEF CON 21 as they occur!
You can also follow us on Twitter, Facebook, or subscribe to our RSS feed!

DEF CON 21 Call for DJs/Performers is about to close!

Posted 4.25.13

If you have long dreamed of the glory of performing live at DEF CON, there's only a few days left in the DEF CON 21 Call for Music/Performers! Check out https://forum.defcon.org/showthread.php?t=13225 if you are interested, and get your self applied by April 30!

DEF CON 21 Awards nominations!

Posted 4.22.13

Weigh in your picks for the 2013 DEF CON Awards! We are currently accepting nominations for the following categories:

Nominations must be submitted no later than midnight, Las Vegas time, on June 31st, 2013, to be considered for inclusion. Thanks!

DEF CON 21 Contest & Event Sign-up is Live!

Posted 4.19.13

If you'd like to run a new or returning contest or event at DEF CON 21, you can now submit your info at http://defcne.net/ to be considered! Bring your innovative hacker spirit to the table and sign up today!

DEF CON 21 Vendor FAQ is Live!

Posted 4.17.13

Are you a past DEF CON vendor or interested in peddling your wares at DEF CON 21? The Vendor Area FAQ and Application are now live! Check it out at https://defcon.hackingyour.net/faq!

DEF CON 21 Pin Giveaway!

Posted 4.14.13

Kallahar, a long time DEF CON Goon, has started a project this year to manufacture and give away a free DEF CON 21 pin. Their goal is to raise enough donations to give everyone one for free. Read more about it and see how you can help here: https://forum.defcon.org/showthread.php?t=13309

CODAME at DEF CON 21!

Posted 4.8.13

We're excited to have CODAME this year at DEF CON 21! If you're not familar, here's what they're all about (from codame.com):

CODAME exists to incubate and support artists, technologists and designers that push the boundaries of hardware, software, and physical/digital mediums. At the intersection of ART+TECH, CODAME is accelerating the way we interpret and express our rapidly changing world.

DEF CON 21 CTF Quals Announced!

Posted 4.1.13

The DEF CON 21 CTF Quals and schedule have been announced! Check out https://legitbs.net/ for all the details!

DEF CON 21 Call for Parties!

Posted 3.25.13

We're trying something new we think you'll like for DEF CON 21. Read all about how to throw your own DEF CON party at the Call for Parties announcement!

Call for CTF Organizers Now Complete!

Posted 3.22.13

On behalf of all the hundreds of staff, volunteers, and community that make
DEF CON happen I would like to thank all of the teams, groups, and companies
that submitted their vision of how they would run Capture the Flag at DEF
CON 21 and beyond.

It was very hard to for us at DEF CON World Domination HQ to decide on which
vision, and ultimately which team, would have the responsibility of seeing
the great CTF tradition into the future. With a record number of five well
thought out submissions there were many things that went into our final
decision from size of team, resources needed, and the look and feel of the
contest. Ultimately the following factors weighed heavily:

- Past experience running or participating in high pressure and large scale
CTFs
- Past experience of organizers in being respected by the community and
having skillz
- A clearly articulated vision for how CTF would evolve under their
direction
- A focus on gameplay and describing the scoring system with an eye toward
observer education
- Increased transparency

Thank you again to the five teams that did not get selected, we wish you the
best of luck and success in your future contests.

And now without any further ado we would like to announce the new
organizers!

Here's Your Big Shot!

Posted 3.15.13

Many often ask how they can be involved in DEF CON. After all, The thing that makes DEF CON great is the contribution of the community. If you're so inclined, here are a few ways you can get involved with DEF CON 21!

A ton of opportunies just like these will be popping up over the next weeks and months, and a great place to keep watch for them is the DEF CON Forums. Keep your eyes peeled if you're looking for a way to help out!

Want to Help?

Posted 2.13.13

Do you want to help at DEF CON? Do you want to see other people have a good time and learn the ropes, willing to run around the convention like a gopher? You gotta start somewhere, consider applying with Highwiz for a position helping out with DC 101. https://forum.defcon.org/showthread.php?t=13193